City Council

Updated, 4:57 p.m. |Thomas White Jr. might be the most nervous man in New York City right now.

Mr. White, a veteran member of the City Council, held only a six-vote lead over a 24-year-old political novice after the Democratic primary on Tuesday.

With absentee, affidavit and military ballots still to be counted, the outcome of the race in Queens remains uncertain.

Mr. White served 10 years on the Council until term limits forced him out at the end of 2001. He was re-elected in 2005 as the Queens Democratic Party’s choice to replace Allan W. Jennings, who at the time was dealing with the fallout of sexual harassment charges against him.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Mr. White had 1,849 votes, or 32 percent — a virtual tie with his challenger, the political novice Lynn Nunes, a businessman who received 1,843 votes. Mr. Jennings, trying for a political comeback, trailed with 942 votes, or 16 percent. Two other candidates, Ruben Wills and Robert Hogan, received another 16 percent combined.

Mr. White has not yet responded to requests for comment left at the office in the 28th Council District, which includes parts of Jamaica, South Jamaica and Richmond Hill.

Mr. Nunes, however, was jubilant on Wednesday morning, saying that he had nearly ousted an entrenched incumbent despite being outspent nearly 3 to 1.

“We ran a very, very strong campaign,” he said. “We were very, very confident going into this — contrary to a lot of other people’s beliefs, I guess.”

Mr. Nunes said he had raised about $32,000 (not including city matching funds) and relied on about a dozen volunteers to canvass door-to-door.

“We were outspent, we were outgunned, and we went against a demographic that was against us,” Mr. Nunes said.

The district is overwhelmingly black, but Mr. Nunes — who has a Brazilian father and a Chinese mother — emphasized his youth and energy, along with issues like overdevelopment, crowded schools and Mr. White’s support for extending term limits.

Mr. Nunes built a following in the southeast Queens district first by organizing voter-registration drives for Barack Obama in early 2008, when Mr. Obama’s campaign relied on grassroots support against party leaders who had endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton. He then campaigned against Mr. White for Democratic district leader, the party’s lowest-level elected post, and came surprisingly close to upsetting the incumbent in the fall of 2008. He used a grassroots campaign style, capitalizing on frustration over the Clinton endorsement and going door to door, particularly in housing projects and other areas where some voters felt neglected.

In southeast Queens, a predominantly black area, some residents were particularly incensed over the term limits change. They placed special value on voting rights that black Americans fought to achieve and viewed the term limits change as negating voters’ will in a kind of disenfranchisement.

At least four City Council incumbents were ousted on Tuesday, and a fifth, Maria Baez of the Bronx, was trailing a challenger by 90 votes. Even if she and Mr. White hold their seats, the primary has already been a bit of a shakeup by historic standards.

All three Council members in southeast Queens — Mr. White, James Sanders Jr. and Leroy G. Comrie — faced unusually active primary races, but political insiders in the area viewed Mr. White as the most vulnerable.

Unlike Mr. Comrie, the Council’s deputy majority leader and an expert deliverer of pork to his district, Mr. White has been criticized for poor attendance at committee meetings. When Mr. White rejoined the Council in 2006, critics assailed him for his poor attendance in his first tenure in the Council, where he missed half of all committee meetings in one year alone. (Returning to the Council, Mr. White promised to do better, and has. But his 75 percent attendance rate since 2006 still puts him the bottom 10 on a Council whose average attendance is 84 percent.)

And while Mr. Sanders, too, has been criticized as an absentee, he was one of very few Democratic officials in New York City to endorse Mr. Obama in the primaries from the outset, bucking a power structure that preferred to back the powerful New York senator, Mrs. Clinton.

If you read the article closely (it could have been better written) this was NOT a term limits issue. In his current cycle White was initially elected in 2005. The fact that he’d “termed out” earlier is immaterial to his present tenure.

What this really looks like is a split vote; where the former incumbent, Jennings, drew away enough votes to put the present incumbent at risk of losing the seat.

Given the demographic makeup of the district, if Nunes prevails, my guess is he’s a one-termer.

Mark my words: Nunes will prevail after the absentee ballots are counted. In Queens, first it was Helen Sears and now Thomas White, Jr. Hooray. It was unfortunate that James Sanders and Leroy Comrie, the other two persons who voted in their self-interest and ignored the will of the people, were able to hold on. It was appalling that no one even bothered to take on Peter Vallone Jr. for his seat. Beyond Queens, Maria Baez, Kendall Stewart, Alan Gerson, and others also fell. Yeah democracy! Finally, in the races for Comptroller and Public Advocate, Liu and DeBlasio, who voted against extending term limits, finished ahead of all council persons who voted to extend term limits. Expect Liu to make quick work in the runoff of David Yassky, who voted to extend term limits. Next up, Mayor Mike!

Finally, I am appalled how the MSM has virtually assured New Yorkers that Bloomberg is a shoe-in for a third term because he has an enormous money advantage. Damn the conventional wisdom. It’s been proven wrong before. Do not underestimate the breadth of the anger and rage of those who are annoyed with the arrogance of this man.

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